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Conference Reports |
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Never say No!
Mr. Gopi Gopalan started by saying, that while at GE, he was more biased to setting up manufacturing units in China as compared to India. He supports it with personal incidents comparing the two countries. For example when GE required a supplier for an industrial part, a supplier in India said that it would take 40 weeks while the Chinese supplier first asked him when GE wanted it. Furthermore, the Chinese supplier was even willing to reduce the lead time provided the price was right. The point here he was making was that the Chinese never say no. To add to that, based on his experience he believes that Indians are the "best buyers" while the Chinese the "best sellers"!
How is it that the Chinese find a way to do it, he asked. Manufacturing in his opinion is the key. He believes that knowledge bases were of no use, when not put to any use. The Chinese have realized this and he explained their success by citing examples of Chinese efficiency, productivity and discipline. For example in China, a highway of 4 lanes took 7 months to build with people working round the clock. Further, he compared assembly line workers in GE India and GE China. While the workers in China start work at sharp 6am, workers in India discuss everything and anything from Sachin Tendulkar's centuries to their mother in laws, finally starting work at 6:20am. In addition at scheduled lunch time of 12pm, workers in India start "washing their hands" at 11:45 pm, while the Chinese worker will do so at 12:01pm. So in effect in comparison to the planned output of 800 units, the factory in Tianjin will almost always produce 801, 802 or 803 units, while one had to be happy if the factory in India produced 599 to 700 units!
Moreover, Indians he believed missed the opportunity most of the times. He quoted a recent study that found of 150 CEOs outside China, 90% planned to enter China within the next 10 years. Further, he said that while "sea turtles" return to China, Indian "sea turtles" don't WANT to come back. He concluded by saying that it's the Chinese way of thinking that has brought them this far: the fact that they are eager to learn from India, the fact that they do not criticize India and that they have the "never say no" attitude.
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